One of the major advantages associated with a gas water heater is that it can continue to operate during a power outage situation. Recent improvements in such gas water heater, however, including the implementation of electronic control of gas water heater and the implementation of gas/compressor hybrid water heater have offered many control and efficiency benefits. Unfortunately the use of electronic controls with gas and gas hybrid water heaters brings certain disadvantages especially during a power outage where loss of the operation of such controls along with the inability to provide hot water during such power outages. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a small electronic control that can be used without the need for 120 VAC or 240 VAC power source.
Previous attempts to address this disadvantage involve the use of backup batteries and pilot light powered electronic controls. While such implementations do address the problem, they too have disadvantages. For example, batteries must be periodically replaced and pilot lights may be extinguished.
Thus, a need exists for systems and methods for ensuring the availability of operational power for gas and/or gas hybrid water heater control systems especially in the case of power line failure.